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You Can’t Be Brave… If You’re Not Well!

DATE

My favourite meme over the time has been the woman standing on the pavement looking up the road saying “What chapter of Revelations are we dealing with today?” 😉 We’re all going through a lot!

What’s helping me in these challenging times: 

  1. We brought out Tal Ben-Shahar, the Harvard Happiness Professor to South Africa 13 years ago and I’ll never forget the analogy he used. He said life is like a complicated jigsaw puzzle- if you were starting a 100-piece puzzle you’d start with the corner pieces. His corner pieces were:  
  • Exercise  
  • Meditation  
  • Gratitude   

And I’d add on the fourth one as Sleep 

The middle of the jigsaw puzzle represents the things in life you can’t control- Covid, the war in Ukraine, floods, rising inflation and loadshedding.  

When we practice Exercise, meditation, gratitude and sleep we can expand our bandwidth and coping mechanisms to make us strong and resilient, regardless of how tough the environment is.  

  1. Don’t switch on your phone as you wake up  

I wake up early at 5.30am- I make a cup of rooibos tea and sit on my patio watching the first glimmers of the sun. I then meditate for 15 mins using the Insight timer on my phone- I breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth rhythmically and slowly. Only after that do I check my WhatsApp, email, and news. That 30 mins that I have to myself in the morning is a complete game changer. I’m calm and clear when I start my day.  

  • I’d strongly encourage you not to use your phone as an alarm- get an old-fashioned alarm clock   
  • Keep your phone in the kitchen at night   
  • Make airplane mode your best friend 
  1. My book “Mindfulness: How to stay sane in an insane world” has been in the news  

I’ve loved hearing stories about how my book is helping people navigate these tricky times- you can listen to my interview with Bruce Whitfield here

Our team has doubled over Covid- we’ve never been busier and doing meaningful practical work that is changing people’s lives and helping them take their careers to the next level. Lots to be grateful for!
P.S. Missing from this pic are Cindy (our Business Development Manager) & Gabriella (our Graphic Designer).

Great Books I’ve Read

Magda by Magda Wierzycka

I’m officially girl-fanning. I’ve been completely inspired by Magda’s story arriving as an eleven-year old Polish refugee who spoke no English in South Africa, to becoming the wealthiest self-made woman 40 years later. 

I learned great lessons around being an entrepreneur, investing, parenting and partner lessons and the BIGGEST one was “Never play small!”

She was also instrumental in breaking the stories of NET1 and the SASA grant scandal, as well as the leaking of the Gupta emails. Everyone should read it!

Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin

This is such a beautifully written book set in France about how a woman takes her power back after a heart-breaking tragedy. It’s that good .I don’t want it to end 

Audible Book of the Year So Far

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. The narration is so good and I’m just loving the story line.

Keep warm, rest and take great care of yourself,   
Much love 
Helen

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